Inquiries are continuing over the threats but so far there have been no arrests or no bombs

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Police are investigating a number of bomb threats made against women journalists via Twitter.

Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Europe editor of Time magazine Catherine Mayer received the tweet, which Dent took a screen grab and posted to her Twitter followers to see.

The message was also sent to a number of other women, including Sara Lang, a social media manager at US campaign group AARP.

It was from anonymous user @98JU98U989 - an account which was later suspended - and said: "A BOMB HAS BEEN PLACED OUTSIDE YOUR HOME. IT WILL GO OFF AT EXACTLY 10.47PM ON A TIMER AND TRIGGER DESTROYING EVERYTHING".

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "We can confirm the MPS have received allegations relating to bomb threats sent to a number of females on Twitter."

The spokesman said inquiries were continuing but so far there had been no arrests and no bombs.

After receiving the threat, Freeman, whose column in yesterday's Guardian was entitled "how to use the internet without being a total loser", said on Twitter she was calling the police, adding: "If it's illegal to threaten to bomb an airport, it's illegal to threaten to bomb me."

The police told her it was investigating as the threat was an "arrestable offence", advising her not to stay at home overnight.

Freeman said she had received "loads" of abuse via Twitter in the past, from both men and women, and had also received rape threats.

She said Twitter should take a more serious approach to online abuse and threats and introduce more robust ways to deal with it, telling the Guardian: "Threatening to bomb and rape people is illegal. We need to apply the law in the same way online as we do in the real world. There should be a button to report abuse more easily. Twitter makes money - they can afford some moderators."

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling on Twitter to beef up its procedures for dealing with abuse following the recent activity.

Twitter has announced plans to include a button for reporting abuse within every tweet - something which is already available on its iPhone app.

But critics argue this does not go far enough and only directs users to the existing reporting form which, they claim, is too long and impractical.